But an industry Group lead by BMW – and including Porsche, Siemens and Allego – is upping the ante further with the development of a 450kW charging system which promises to deliver EV charging in times comparable to filling up with petrol or diesel (well, almost).

FastCharge, as the new system is dubbed, is only at prototype stage, but the group has rolled it out in Jettingen-Scheppach, Bavaria, to show what it can do. And it is impressive.

Using a BMW i3 research vehicle fitted with the gubbins needed to take such a fast charge, it was able to go from 10-80 per cent charge in its 57kWh battery in just 15 minutes, and a similarly modified Porsche SUV took a 62-mile charge in just three minutes.

The system uses European Type 2 version of the Combined Charging System (CCS) charging connectors and cooled HPC cables, and can detect the charging rate of whatever plugs in. Which is just as well, as no cars on the market can yet use even the Ionity 350kW charging, never mind the new 450kW chargers.